It truly wasn't until the boat neared the shores of Hargeon that reality dawned on Kai, and probably the others. The town hadn't just been rebuilt, it'd been almost entirely restructured, with defensive walls set up and several more buildings erected, some with shiny new paint and stone. Everyone gawked at the sight of it.
The awe did not stop there, as they took the train from Hargeon across the Fiore countryside, where dozens of new homes, farms, and little villages had popped up. As Magnolia neared, a knot formed in Kai's stomach; what else had changed? What had happened in seven years? He glanced back toward Team Shadow Gear.
Nothing good, by the sounds of it. Fairy Tail had been deposed from their guild hall by Twilight Ogre, sent to live in a little shack outside the city on the opposite side of town as Boundary Forest. And those punks had kept coming back for more, bullying Fairy Tail into handing over all their earnings.
Kai gripped the handle of his sword tightly, and, next to him, he saw Iggy held a bit of a glower in the train's reflection.
When they got off the train, it was to the amazement and surprise of many townspeople, but nobody in Fairy Tail slowed up or said hello to anyone. The entire group marched, following Jet and Droy outside of Magnolia toward the new guild hall.
The door was open, and five figures stood, laughing, in the doorway. Natsu snarled and sprinted toward them, with Erza, Gray, Kai, and Gajeel in pursuit.
Natsu slammed into one from behind, and as the other four turned, they were swiftly dealt with, knocked out in a single blow. Kai withheld little remorse for not holding back on the one he hit, too, and they ran away crying as everyone else in the guild hall burst into tears.
Kai just couldn't believe the difference in appearance: not just for the guild hall, but for everyone: Alzack looked put together, Wakaba and Macao had significantly aged, Romeo had shot up in height, Max looked like a real man and Laki like a real woman. Others had just let themselves go a bit, like Droy and Nab.
Makarov helped fill in what'd happened: that First Master Mavis Vermillion appeared to them after they'd all woken up and explained that the power of their bonds and friendship allowed them to cast one of the three Great Fairy Spells: Fairy Sphere. It saved them from Acnologia's blast but the consequence of using the spell forced them into a statis for seven years, not aging them at all.
Nobody seemed discouraged by it at all, and the festivities began almost right away, with Romeo clinging tight to Natsu's side the entire time, trying to tell him all about his advancements in magic. Kai was still just getting over their victory over Hades and how much of a tribulation that'd been, let alone celebrating they were back.
To him, it didn't feel like seven years had passed. He believed it was still X784, that he'd just been knocked out by Acnologia's blast. He did wonder how his power stacked against the other wizards of the time, like if he were to fight against someone like Erigor how they would match up, or the Oracion Seis.
The party raged on for a long time before at last it slowed down when everyone got quite tired and some new faces appeared, faces Kai barely recognized: Lamia Scale. They didn't look more grown-up like Romeo or Laki, just more matured. Gray was surprisingly content with seeing his old rival, Lyon, who shared similar feelings. Kai could feel the significant amount of power coming from Iron Rock Jura, confirming that, indeed, the seven years had helped everyone else bridge a gap in power Kai didn't even know existed.
Lamia Scale helped settle everyone down and get them all acquainted with the way of the world: their guild had risen to Number 2 in Fiore, and every other guild in the kingdom quickly surged in strength to catch up to the missing Fairy Tail, who had fallen significantly down in the ranks. Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus were constant allies of Fairy Tail but mostly in the way of trying to find Tenrou Island.
Kai couldn't blame them; Fairy Tail hit tough times emotionally and mentally, losing several guild members. Jobs were harder to come by, according to Max, and that just made the situation worse.
He couldn't help approaching Jura, who proudly surveyed the room. Jura noticed Kai upon the boy's approach.
"Good to see you," he said, holding out his hand. Kai grasped it; a solid grip, much firmer than before.
"Good to see you, too," Kai said. "Even without the seven years, it's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Indeed."
"Jura, I had a question about a few…people, I guess."
Jura nodded. "There's much to be caught up on."
"The Oración Seis. Are they still—"
"Imprisoned? Yes. The Magic Council has kept a diligent eye on them year after year, weary in particular of Midnight's abilities and Cobra's strength. The Seis have not been all that stagnant, I've heard, with their power. After our confrontation with them, they've been sure to continue their training."
"Physically, I imagine."
"You'd be correct, too. Did you think them a concern?"
Kai shook his head. "Honestly I was hoping they'd have reformed. When I fought Cobra, I thought—I thought there'd been a moment where maybe he understood that where we came from, the history we all shared…that didn't necessarily matter to who you could become. I'm happy they're serving some time for the terrible things they'd done but…I mean, even Hoteye? I'd thought for sure you could've gotten him free."
Jura chuckled. "Not for lack of trying, I assure you. I've used every manner of persuasion I can, and many times, the Council has given me permission to recruit him into our guild. But they will not let him go unless he wants to leave, and he has thus far been adamant about remaining imprisoned. So, in that way, you have some reformation." Jura's expression hardened just a bit. "I know what you mean with Cobra, though. He's the most docile of them all, besides Midnight, who never speaks. I think he's waiting for something."
"For what?"
"He wants to find someone. A woman, I suppose, perhaps his lover or partner."
Kai shrugged. "Nobody's been able to find her?"
"That and nobody in the Council is willing to give into his demands. The Council tends to see things in a negative light: You, Laxus, Gajeel, and Cobra have all committed heinous crimes, and you're all Dragon Slayers. Natsu has a penchant for destruction. As far as the Magic Council is concerned, Dragon Slayers are a threat. They'll take any excuse they can get to lock you all up."
"They've clearly never met Wendy."
"That's certainly true."
Kai pursed his lips, far more nervous to ask about this next one, "How much do you know about what happened to us?"
"It was Acnologia."
Kai nodded, slowly. "Have you—"
"He's vanished." Jura folded his arms within his robes. "It took a while for anyone to learn it was he who did this; rumors, at first, that were only confirmed a mere few minutes ago. But just as before the Tenrou incident, Acnologia has vanished."
Vanished? Not again! Kai bit his lips and nodded, trying to accept the reality. What was worse: if everyone else had gotten this strong, what about Acnologia?
Kai sat near a small pond at sunset while everyone else chatted away. Lucy, Natsu, and Happy had all gone into Magnolia to check out Lucy's place. Some of the other girls had gone off to Fairy Hills, curious about what the situation was there.
Iggy sat with Kai as he stared as his rippling reflection. He dropped another pebble into the pond.
"You're thinking about leaving the guild again, aren't you?"
"It's crossed my mind."
She whapped him with her tail but he just shrugged it off. "Fool."
"Crossed my mind and left," Kai said. "I'll get stronger, faster, if I stay here with everyone else and…try and catch up, I guess." Kai sat up, clutching the pebbles and turning them to ice. "Catch up to what? Like how far behind are we? We're still so far behind Gildarts, and I'm sure tons of other people have already caught up to him. That puts Acnologia even further beyond that precipice." He dropped the pebbles into the pond and the water turned to ice. "Acnologia might not have killed us, but he may as well have made sure we can't kill him."
"You don't know that. We have to train, like you said. And everyone else is stronger now. We have more benchmarks to get through, yes, but we'll have a much faster time of knowing where we are and getting stronger."
Kai shrugged but couldn't disagree. Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus would surely help Fairy Tail out in terms of training, and there were dozens of new guilds popping up all over the place, according to Jura.
"Ah, there you are, I was wondering where you'd scampered off to."
Kai glanced over his shoulder to the heavenly figure of Erza, smiling upon him with the sun glistening off of her.
"Wanna join?"
Erza took her seat next to Kai. "What's on your mind? Acnologia?"
Kai sighed. "As always, it seems."
"It was a foolish thing you did back on the island attacking him like that." Before Kai could retort, Erza placed her fingers on his lips. "But not an unsurprising thing. I probably would have done the same thing. And what matters is that we survived to live another day."
Kai just shook his. "Another day doing what, playing catch up?"
"Living." Erza clasped his jaw with her hand and kissed him. When she pulled back, Kai did feel much better. "For each other. We have to rebuild now, Kai. Time has decimated many things, but not our plans, right?"
Her eyes softened. Kai searched them for meaning, then it clicked: Moving in. Erza had mentioned it to Makarov back on the island, and Kai couldn't have been more excited at the time.
Or now.
"Absolutely not," Kai said.
"But there is a slight situation," Erza said, even stealing a glance down to Iggy. "Your current place…"
"Sucks? Ugh, tell me about it," Iggy said. "We need to get a new place, definitely in the town, not out here in the sticks. There won't be nearly enough room for your stuff, Erza, and I may finally have room to walk around!"
"I'm not thinking something so extravagant," Erza said. "Something like Lucy's apartment would be nice."
"Her landlady is the worst," Kai said.
"Like Lucy's," Erza said. "With a nice living room, a small kitchen area, a bathroom, and a bedroom. Maybe an extra room for Iggy."
"Maybe? No. Definitely. I'll pay my own part of the rent for that, I don't care what stupid cat-show job I need to take."
"You're quite passionate about this."
"I just haven't told you about it since you've been mopey for a while ever since the Tower of Heaven stuff. But that was seven years ago! Plenty of time for a new room."
"Well, we have a different problem, then," Kai said. "Money."
"Did you put it away into a savings?"
Kai pursed his lips. "I more, just…put it away."
Erza sighed and nodded. "Well, I'll arrange with the Magnolia bank to ensure that my finances are still in line. I'm sure seven years of not checking in with them has hampered things a bit, but I can be persuasive if they decide to get finicky."
"And I know just where our money is!" Iggy exclaimed.
"Someone stole all of our money!"
Kai face-palmed and Iggy crumpled to the ground. Their apartment hadn't been stripped of any money, but it'd clearly been upended and some of their pricier bits of furniture and décor had been stolen. Even Iggy's bed, which Kai paid top-dollar for.
Their safe had been cracked open as well. Kai just shook his head. "The seller told me it was impenetrable."
"I bet it was Twilight Ogre," Iggy said with a snarl. "Let's go over there and-!"
"How about we figure out how we don't go broke?" Kai asked. "I mean, we already are, but we need money now! Where the hell are we going to live? We've been evicted from here and the new guild hall is tiny."
"I guess we'll just need to find a nice park bench," Iggy said.
"We had no other money, right?"
Iggy waggled her tail about. "There's that one box we buried a few years ago when we first moved in, remember that?"
Kai nodded, remembering that the box existed, but not necessarily where they'd put it. He strummed his mind for it and the two just wandered Magnolia for a bit before at last, and accidentally, stumbling upon it.
They'd arrived at an abandoned park near several foreclosed apartment buildings that Magnolia originally intended to be housing for the Fairy Tail boys, but they got far too obnoxious and abandoned the project.
Kai and Iggy wanted to put away a few things from their old lives, and at the time, Kai didn't understand much about Iggy having an old life, thinking that the things she put away were just toys she like as a little kitten.
They dug the box up quickly, and it was smaller than Kai remembered—probably because it was much larger to him as a kid.
Iggy sighed with relief while nostalgia washed over Kai. They both took a seat, removing a large sack of Jewel, and currency from Iceberg they could probably convert into more money, since Iceberg money was rare and converted quite favorably to Jewel.
But more remained in the box: a small globe from Iggy that she pawed at and brought close.
"I found this on my first job with the old guild," Iggy said.
Kai extracted an unfreezing shard of ice: one from Kairi that, when he pulled it apart, formed into a necklace that was only cool, not cold, to the touch. There was also a picture of a young Erza, Iggy, and Kai stuffed at the bottom.
Kai clutched the ice shard tight. "We should keep this stuff, not leave it buried. We buried it to not let our past define us, but…we need it now, Iggy. We need to use everything from our past to move forward into our future."
He couldn't remove his eyes from the ice shard, and something called from within him toward it. He absorbed just a bit of it, and a soothing sensation washed over him. Kai squeezed the rest of the shard and the magic sank back into his body, a light blue aura forming around him before something glowed, bright, from within his chest.
Power. The power of the dragon.
Kai closed his eyes, just barely managing to contain the wild magic roaring about in his body. He smiled, knowing that the next time he cast any magic, it would probably be like the old days: loose, hard to control.
He stood with Iggy, who clutched their funds tight. Kai put the box back into the dirt and covered it up.
"Come on," he said, his breath a bit colder. "Let's go find a home."